Spiralised Carrot and Chickpea Pad Thai, plus a spiraliser review

My second book (High Protein Vegan) already has a recipe for a grain-free pad Thai, but seeing as I didn’t have any cabbage on hand, didn’t have the time to make a batch of soy-free tofu and I now have a magical veggie pasta maker, I thought I would try making a different version.

This new recipe is just as delicious as the original recipe, I don’t even miss the crispy bits of fried soy-free tofu. The raw carrot noodles add a nice crunch to the dish and go really well with the sweet, sour and spicy pad Thai sauce.

If you cook for people that prefer to eat wheat noodles instead of spiralised veggies this recipe can still be made without fuss – first bring some water for their pasta to the boil, prepare all the ingredients while waiting for the water to boil and cooking the pasta (I use wholemeal wheat spaghetti, it takes 9 minutes), then when the pasta is cooked, sauté the onions and heat up the chickpeas and sauce.

Put layers of pasta with half the chickpea/sauce mix in one bowl and roughly mix together, do the same thing with the spiralised carrot and the rest of the chickpea mixture. Top the bowls with peanuts and coriander (add some mung bean sprouts if you have those on hand too) and enjoy.

•4 medium carrots per serve (400g/14oz) (or use less if you’re not as hungry than I am – most recommendations for the amount of spiralised veggies per serve are 1 or 2 carrots or zucchinis, which I find is not filling enough)
or 100-150g (3.5-5.3oz) dry wholemeal noodles such as spaghetti per serve

Method:

If you’re boiling pasta for someone, start boiling the water first, and prepare the ingredients while it boils and then cooks the pasta.

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside until needed.

Heat some olive or sesame oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the spring onions and sauté until fragrant, a couple of minutes. Add the chickpeas and the pad Thai sauce and bring to the boil, stirring often, until the sugar has dissolved and the chickpeas are hot.

Put layers of spiralised carrots (or cooked noodles) in bowls, top with a layer of the chickpea mixture and roughly stir to combine, repeat until all the noodles and chickpea mix have been used. Top with the peanuts and coriander leaves and enjoy.

*this depends on your choice out of coconut aminos, miso, tamari or soy-sauce.

**For sugar-free option use coconut sugar.

And now for the spiraliser review:
I’ve been wanting to make raw pasta for years but never got around to it until recently because there are so many spiralisers around now and I wasn’t sure what one to get. Reading other people’s reviews of spiralisers isn’t much help because most people have only tried out one of them and are inclined to say that it works for them so must be the greatest spiraliser around. After doing some research about which ones are available in Australia, I chose the Benriner vertical slicer from Kitchenware Direct.

This spiraliser is the same one that is known as the ‘Cook Help’ in other countries. It’s made in Japan, it feels really sturdy and as though it’s made to last. It is simple to use, I didn’t even need the amusing instructions. It comes with 3 different blades for different sized spiralising (the middle one is my favourite for most veggie pastas), and it only takes around 30 seconds to change the blade, and not much longer to clean it. The time it takes to spiralise enough veggies for a meal for 2 is less than it takes to boil spaghetti.

As you can tell from the recipe above, I’m not restricted to the most well known raw pasta of spiralised zucchini (which is only in season here for around 3 months of the year), but have found that carrot can get really good results in some recipes. Beetroot can be spiralised and made into a delicious salad with a balsamic and olive oil dressing – topping this with some cooked lentils and cultured nut cheeze makes for an easy protein-rich meal.

Since getting this spiraliser I’ve been eating even more vegetables than usual and enjoying some raw pasta meals. A few times I’ve spiralised some daikon radish and carrot used that in place of the kelp noodles from the almond sesame noodle recipe from Practically Raw, I also added some peas for extra protein, even without the capsicum in the original recipe this was great, the sauce has so much flavour.

One concern I had about spiralisers is the amount of waste. Some of the horizontal spiralisers leave a core in the vegetable that can’t be spiralised, so if you only have small vegetables it can waste quite a lot of them Watching this video had convinced me that the Benriner vertical spiraliser was the one to get.

Another thing I like about this spiraliser is that it doesn’t take up much bench space or cupboard space. I also like the green colour, which means it doesn’t stain from spiralising carrots like I imagine some of the white spiralisers might.

When I got this I had no idea I would be using it so much – pretty much every day I have been making a veggie pasta meal, side salad or garnish with the spiraliser. I’ll post the link again, if you’re in Australia and want to buy one: here. I’ve ordered from this shop several times and the orders always arrive quickly and in good condition.

Hi! Got here vae The Taste Space blog, and thanks for the kasekrainer recipe- I love both seitan and cashew cheeze and I can’t wait to try it. Also looking forward to reading more of your recipes here :)

I have just purchased Triumph of the Lentil. I am dismayed to find so many of the recipes have chickpea flour in. I can’t eat chickpeas in any form as they make me sick and feel very ill. Is there an alternative you would recommend I use in the recipes instead please? Thank you.

White bean flour can be used instead of chickpea flour in all my recipes, if you can find some of this (I think Bobs Red Mill make it) then you can use it in any recipe that calls for chickpea flour, or if you can tolerate soy then a non-gmo soy flour can be used to replace the chickpea flour in Triumph of the Lentil recipes.

Thanks for your previous reply to me. I would like to make the Borlotti bean and kale pizza sauce. The recipe says 14 oz of tomatoes. I would normally assume that meant fresh tomatoes but as tinned ones are often used in pizza and a tin weighs about that amount, I thought it best to check as tinned ones are a lot more liquid than fresh, so could lead to a rather different result. If tinned tomatoes are used, does that include the juice too?

Thanks for your help earlier. I have been using soy flour to replace chick pea flour. Thank you.

Hi Sara, I’m glad you found a suitable replacement for the flour. I’ve used tinned tomatoes in that recipe many times (not sure about fresh), and just using a whole can of tinned tomatoes, including the juice, works well. I’ve also used tomato purée (passata) in place of tinned tomatoes in a lot of recipes and found that it works well too.